Cruickshank had private connections to which they were all respectful.

Nobody but Cruickshank found it expedient to look up the lost leader of the Canadian House of Commons, contributed to a cause still more completely lost in home politics; nobody but Cruickshank was likely to be asked to dine by a former Governor-General of the Dominion, an invitation which nobody but Cruickshank would be likely to refuse.
"It used to be a 'command' in Ottawa," said Cruickshank, who had got on badly with his sovereign's representative there, "but here it's only a privilege.

There's no business in it, and I haven't time for pleasure." The nobleman in question had, in effect, dropped back into the Lords.

So far as the Empire was concerned, he was in the impressive rearguard, and this was a little company of fighting men.
The entertainments arising out of business were usually on a scale more or less sumptuous.

They took place in big, well-known restaurants, and included a look at many of the people who seem to lend themselves so willingly to the great buzzing show that anybody can pay for in London, their names in the paper in the morning, their faces at Prince's in the evening, their personalities no doubt advantageously exposed in various places during the day.